


Phinbella Pseudo-Rejection -- Extended

by SpiritBloodDemon



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Betrayal, F/M, Original Character - Freeform, Remade, extension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:23:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritBloodDemon/pseuds/SpiritBloodDemon
Summary: Phineas Flynn was once a young, happy, oblivious boy. Isabella was the one who had loved him. Once Phineas had moved away, Isabella had found a new love...a love that wasn't a true love. When Phineas gets the news that he is moving back to Danville, he is ecstatic as he finds his love for Isabella, though a tad too late. Phineas becomes crushed with one word."No."With that, the once optimistic, lovable boy had turned into something else. Someone else.(This story was inspired by the story Phinbella Pseudo-Rejection on Deviantart by EdinaC0406 and I recommend Phinbella lovers read it. Also, this is specifically intended for people who know what the characters of Phineas and Ferb look like, for the only people whose appearance I will describe are the ones who aren't in the show.)(Also, I know that this story is a lot shorter than other stories that some fanfiction writers may make. I just want this to help me ease into writing with my first story.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Phinbella: Pseudo-Rejection](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/401487) by edinac0406. 



Isabella woke up in her bed, groggy and tired. The bright sunlight shone in her eyes and she got up. Isabella slowly stretched as she yawned. Her room was decorated with all sorts of pink. Walking over to her vanity table, she opened the drawer and grabbed her hairbrush and her signature pink bow. Her eyes slowly became accustomed to the light as she styled her hair as she usually did. Once she finished, which took a few minutes, she carefully placed her bow in the spot where it belonged; in her hair.

She smiled brightly, before heading to the bathroom to finish her usual routine and preparation for the new summer day. After brushing her teeth and all the other multiple processes that she took to prepare for the whole day, she headed down to the kitchen and greeted her mother. Her mother, Vivian, had smiled brightly and handed her a plate of eggs and brown rice. This was the usual breakfast for the Jewish-Mexican lady. As she walked her way to the table with a bright smile on her face, she nodded her head as thanks to her mother, who graciously accepted with another grin.

"Good morning, Isa!" her mother yipped to her in her usually cheerful attitude as she smiled softly to her daughter. Isabella smiled back at her mother before digging into her breakfast. She ate at a much faster pace than she would during the school day, as she knew a new contraption would come about today. Although she knew that she did have much more time due to it being summer, that didn't stop her from wishing to find out what sort of crazy creation the brothers had created this time.

Her next door neighbors were not the usual bunch, which was meant in a good way. The three of the family's children were very different than the rest, mostly the two younger step-brothers. The two of them, Phineas and Ferb, were very...creative. They were astounding builders, with the skill to build entire rollercoasters that spanned the city within a day.

Phineas was the very optimistic brother, who was a chatterbox sometimes with how inventive he was sometimes. His everyday motto was 'Carpe diem,' to seize the day. He regularly used his creativity to create many different inventions that seemed impossible until he built it. These inventions, which were all made within a day, included the usual gigantic rollercoaster, waterproof mechanical shark, animal translator for all animals, and many more.

Ferb was the quiet one of the two. However, he more than makes up for his silence for the actions. While Phineas was the creative half of the two, Ferb was the builder of them, the one who made the magic really happen. Ferb is the one who uses his own two hands to build what is needed to build, and keeps a calm mind through any situation, and is able to see even the smallest of details and can tell what one's actions mean. As Phineas' imagination regularly makes him overlook certain details in a design, Ferb easily detects these errors and can very quickly come to a solution to the problem.

And the two brothers are very impressive to too many adults, only being 10-year-old boys. In fact, they were considered the prodigies of the generation, gaining the attention of colleges around the world that were prestigious, such as Harvard, Stanford and many more. These feats have earned them to pride and support of their parents, for they were so glad to know that their sons were some of the smartest people on the planet. (Okay, for this story, I'm gonna have the parents know about their buildings. It won't have much of an effect on the actual plot so the rest is gonna be the exact same.)

Isabella also had a certain crush on a certain brother in the family. And it just so unfortunately had to be the entirely oblivious one of the brothers. Isabella was in love with Phineas Flynn. The only problem with the fact that she had a crush on Phineas was that he was completely clueless about anything involving romance. His overactive imagination had almost always been focused on making others happy with his creativity, and not on romance.

About everybody in Danville knew about her crush on Phineas except Phineas himself. And they didn't do much about it, as they all thought that Phineas needed to figure out his feelings on his own. However, their standards for how dense the prodigy boy could be was struck down every time. This was usually due to how Phineas, although being one of the smartest people on the planet, was practically the very worst when it came to anything related to romance, as evidenced through his romance experiment for Baljeet and his friend. For this, Isabella thanked them. She regularly thought, _If he loves me back, he'll figure it out on his own._

Even though this thought was there for quite a long time, the time it was taking Phineas to show any hint of progress was monumental. It had been there for ears when Isabella had had feelings for Phineas, yet his denseness has prevented him from showing any sort of interest for anyone that wasn't platonic. This had been extremely frustrating for the young lady. It actually infuriated her that the Dorito-head was a genius when it came to every other possible subject, but even the word 'romance' seemed foreign to him.

As Isabella finished her breakfast, she smiled at her mother once more and headed to the door. Before even touching the door, she called out to her mother, "Hey, Mom, I'm going to go to Phineas and Ferb's home, okay?!" Before her mother could even reply, Isabella called out once more, "Love you mom see you later bye!" very quickly and went outside, sprinting to the Flynn-Fletcher house.  
Isabella walked past the driveway and to the fence door to the backyard. Taking another breath, she opened the oak-wood fence door and smiled brightly. She had sparkles in her eyes as she called out her very well-known catchphrase, "Hey Phineas, Whatcha doing?" The sparkles in her eyes disappeared when she saw that there was no Phineas nor Ferb in the backyard, drawing schematics for the usual contraption of the day.

 _Strange, they're usually already making something by this time. Wonder what happened to 'em?_ Isabella questioned herself. Indeed, it was strange. Phineas and Ferb were usually so excited, mostly Phineas, that they began to create their schematics early in their day, as early as five in the morning when they went around the world in a day. There was no sign of them, not even loud scribbling on a paper coming from indoors. It was as if the whole house had no sign of Phineas or Ferb, due to Phineas being so unknowingly loud.

Going to the front door of the Flynn-Fletcher house, she softly knocked on the door. She softly breathed her words, "Mr. and Mrs. Flynn Fletcher? Are you home?" She knocked once more, with a little more force than the first time. Isabella only had to wait a few moments before someone called out to her that they were coming. Gradually louder footsteps came to the door, as the father of the family opened the door.

Lawrence Fletcher had still been waking up from his actual waking up, for he still felt tired and unused to moving around again. He worked at an antique store and didn't open up until around an hour from now. This led him to still be in his pajamas, and just stared at Isabella without any hint of interest or emotion within his eyes.  
He smiled weakly as he looked at the ten-year-old girl and asked, with a hint of curiosity, "Hi, Isabella. What brings you to our house today?" Isabella blushed slightly and looked to the side. Once she felt Lawrence stare at her curiously, she gathered her words together and looked at the man once again.

Isabella nodded her head to Lawrence, "I just wanted to know where Phineas and Ferb were. They weren't in their backyard earlier." To this, Lawrence scratched his chin for a short while before a short 'Aha!' came to him.

Lawrence had a sympathetic look in his eyes while he softly spoke to Isabella, like a parent trying to console their child, "I'm very sorry, Isabella. We forgot to inform you that we're moving to Illinois soon." This had crushed Isabella. Her very best friend and crush moving away for who knows how long?

This was the start to the end.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Howdy howdy folks, I just wanted to go back to this chapter because 1) I wanted to fix how this chapter and the next chapter had absolutely no connection and 2) Even by the usual 1500 word chapter, which is shorter than what I should be writing, this is way too short at less than 900 words, so I had to adjust it so that there was a bit more meat on the bone than what I had last time, even if it wasn't much.

Anyways, I think that this is a good step towards making this story better than how horrible I messed it up beforehand.  
And lastly, if you have any sort of feedback on my story, I'd love to hear it!

_ Never going to give you up, _

_SpiritBloodDemon_


	2. A few years' time can do something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I forgot to say that this story that I wrote originated in Wattpad, which is why the A/N is in the actual chapter instead of in the notes.

15-year-old Phineas opened the door to his home in Glendale Heights, Illinois. He entered the kitchen, once again examining the room. Sighing, he dropped his computer bag from school onto the kitchen table and recited almost as if it was clockwork, "I wish Isabella was here."

  
Even though he didn't realize it while he was at Danville, he realized now that she wasn't with him just how important she was to him. He had grown to have a crush on her. However, he couldn't get in contact with her. After he realized that he was in love with Isabella, it just so happened that she had given up. He kept sending many love letters to her through electronics every day, losing hope each day as she had never replied.

  
Once Phineas had moved away, Isabella had become angry about how he never showed any sign of feelings for her. She had made a new email address and hadn't checked her old one ever since. Now, the emails were beginning to pile up. Phineas walked to his room, keeping his actual backpack on him.

  
His room looked just like it did in Danville, it was even still on the second floor with a window between his and Ferb's bed. Setting both his keys and his backpack on his bed, he slumped to his computer. Sighing, he sat down in the gray chair and turned the desktop computer on.

  
Repeating the same process of checking the number of letters he had sent to Isabella's old email address. Scooting his chair closer, he clicked on the 'New Page' button. He fixed his posture before beginning another letter. He soon became so enveloped in his typing that he didn't hear the door open.

  
Another 15-year old boy came into the home again. Blinking slightly, his expression never changing once as he repeated the same process that Phineas had. The only difference was that he did everything absolutely silently. Putting down his computer bag was silent. As he walked up to his room, he was silent. Even putting his keys and backpack down, no noise came with it.

  
Ferb pulled the curtains away from the room's window, letting more light than just the small lamp that Phineas was using so he could see easily see the computer screen enter the room. Still completely silent, he walked over to Phineas, who was still entirely lost in his letter-creating. Ferb mentally laughed as he made many gestures behind Phineas, and him still not noticing, despite Ferb's shadow being over.

  
Ferb listened in to Phineas' music, which was blaring through the black and red earphones that he had received from Buford for Christmas. Ferb had no struggle internalizing his comedic thoughts as he heard 'Welcome to the Black Parade' blare through his earphones. Ferb thought, _Maybe Phineas has reached his emo stage._

  
He decided to stop toying with his younger step-brother and lightly tapped the typing teen softly on his shoulder. Phineas took off his earphones and spun his chair around until he was facing Ferb. Phineas' eyes looked slightly tired, and he was slightly annoyed. He really wanted to finish the letter as soon as possible so he could get to his homework.

  
Ferb raised his eyebrow. He spoke quietly "What's wrong this time, Phin?" Phineas sighed. He spun his chair back to face his computer and kept typing. Ferb mentally smirked. He spun Phineas' chair so he would keep spinning for a few seconds. Phineas yelped as his vision became blurred with everything in his rooming passing his vision in what seemed to be light speed. After Phineas had stopped spinning by placing his feet on the ground to stop the momentum of the chair, he got up.

  
Phineas rubbed his temples. He snapped slightly, "What do you want, Ferb? I got to finish this so I can get to my homework." At this, Ferb raised his eyebrow again and let out a quiet mix of a laugh and a scoff. Ferb walked over to his own backpack and grabbed his assignment notebook. Flipping it open to a certain page, he walked a step towards Phineas and showed him the page.

  
Phineas squinted his eyes as he leaned forward towards the page. He read the small text that was decorated with many artistic designs that Ferb had come up with. Whispering it out loud, he came to a realization. "Summer break." He looked at the date of the planner and then at the date on his computer. It matched.

  
Phineas' mood switched almost instantly. He leaped into his chair, typing at a much faster pace than he had ever done before. It almost seemed to Ferb that his fingers were a blur, and to Ferb, it was as if there was steam coming from the keyboard from how fast Phineas was moving his fingers. However, the biggest difference that Ferb could detect from Phineas was the bright smile on his face. Ferb softly smiled.

  
He hadn't seen that big a smile from Phineas ever since last summer. He thought to himself, _Typical Phineas._ Ferb doubted that his family would also be happy and, quite frankly, unsurprised at the fact that Phineas was once again happy because of summer vacation. Ferb left Phineas to his own devices to finish the electronic letter to Isabella.

  
Heading down to the kitchen to find Phineas a snack, as he usually spent lunchtime trying to make a creation, albeit smaller than the summer creations, skipping his actual lunch and just building. Ferb snapped his fingers. _I have to tell Candace about this!_ Ferb thought to himself. Even when Candace had visited their home from her college in Chicago, Phineas hadn't smiled too much.

  
Ferb reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone that worked exactly like Candace's phone when he and Phineas built a new one for her. He let the phone ring for Candace as he scrounged around the fridge for a snack. He reached into the fridge, detecting a pizza box in the back of the fridge.

  
Pulling it out of the fridge, Ferb had noticed the absence of their parents, Lawrence and Linda. Ferb felt they had left to buy groceries, and his suspicions were slightly boosted by the fridge is empty other than the pizza they had bought yesterday. Ferb walked to the microwave and heat up a slice for his younger step-brother.

  
As he was heating up the slice of pizza, he walked over to his phone again and put it on speaker. He heard one more ring before a voice came from the phone. An irritated, annoyed voice came from the phone growling, "What do you need, Ferb? I need to get this work done by Friday and that deadline might not be enough for a 10-page essay."

  
Ferb softly smiled, as he hoped that the news was going to help her feel slightly calmer. Even though he was giddy inside from the news himself, he was able to keep his calm as he usually did as he quietly yelled happily into the phone, "Phineas is smiling again because of summer break." Even though he could not see her through his phone, as he only selected to call her, he could feel that she was smiling.

  
Candace smiled softly. It was about time her baby brother would be happy again. She whispered quietly into the phone, ''That's good to hear. He needs a time period where he's actually happy and not this serious grump he's been for a while." She took a brief pause before speaking slightly louder into the phone. "Could you tell him that I said hello? Oh, and another thing. Please tell him that I do care about him."

  
Ferb wasn't surprised at all. He knew that Candace did care about them. He knew that she worried about them. He even knew that she was only trying to bust them because they were worried that they would be hurt. He quietly whispered into the phone, "Okay, Candace. I'll see you soon."

  
Ferb grabbed the slice of pizza and set it in front of Phineas, who had just sent the email to Isabella. Ferb softly smiled as he sarcastically bowed and presented the slice of pizza to him. Just as Phineas began to dig into the food, there was a quiet silence between the two of them. After Phineas had finished his slice of pizza, he looked at Ferb a certain way. It was one of determination.

  
Ferb smiled brightly at Phineas. He was back to his childish builder. Phineas gleefully repeated like he did each summer day, "Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!" Ferb laughed. He replied almost immediately, "You do know that it is 5:30?" Phineas gained a sheepish look from this revelation. The new silence between them was broken from the door opening.

  
Lawrence yelled, "Boys! Come down! We have news!" After Phineas and Ferb both came downstairs, he smiled brightly. Both Lawrence and Linda spoke happily, "At the end of summer, we're moving to Danville!"


	3. She...actually has a boyfriend?

After the summer, the Flynn-Fletcher family moved back to Danville. Phineas was especially excited because he would be able to see Isabella again. When they arrived, he was delighted to see that Isabella and her family was still living there. He waited very impatiently for the delivery truck to arrive. Once it did arrive, Phineas had rushed to move all the boxes into his room.

  
Buford, Isabella, and Baljeet looked from Isabella's backyard and stopped what they were doing. Buford dropped Baljeet and talked in his scratchy voice, which was slightly deeper than before. "Hey, who's the new kid?" All three of them shrugged, and all of their curiosity overtook their minds and they began to walk across the street.

  
As Phineas finished unboxing his possessions and placing them back in the room where they originally were, Phineas smiled brightly. Every detail of the room he had lived in when he was 10 was still there, and it looked exactly the same. From what he heard, the room he and Ferb slept in was turned into a storage room, and the only things that were put into it were things from the children's baby days.

  
As Phineas lied down on his bed, he heard a knock come from the doorbell. Unfortunately, Phineas volunteered to unbox everything they had. Phineas groaned as he rose from his bed. His body aching, he trudged to the front door and rested his head on it. He sighed, earning a trade of looks from the three on the other side of the door.

  
Phineas sighed once more, before asking, "Who's there?" Isabella, the bully, and the nerd couldn't recognize the voice as it was deeper than it was five years ago. Isabella took a deep breath. She always thought that first impressions were a key factor in everything when meeting a person. Baljeet and Buford rolled their eyes and smirked. They both remembered all the other times that Isabella had done this.

  
Phineas was about to go back, thinking that they were just young kids who were trying to prank him. However, Buford pushed Isabella out of the way and yelled to the door, knowing that the person on the other side would hear. He took a deep breath before yelling, "Open the door, newbie, or I'll force you to!"

  
Phineas' eyes widened, then he smiled brightly. He went back to the door, and whispered, "Buford?" Buford snorted, thinking, _I guess my popularity is spreading as the biggest bully around._ As if Baljeet and Isabella both read his mind, they each gave him a smack on the back of a head. However, all of them knew that the smacks were both playful, earning a slight laugh from the bully.

  
Buford then went back to his previous demeanor, and growled, "Yeah, kid. What's it to you?" Phineas mentally laughed. It seemed as if Buford wouldn't ever change. He teared up in joy, and opened the door, and gave the bully in a half tackle, half hug. Buford yelped in surprise as he was knocked on the ground, though both Isabella and Baljeet felt like they knew this person, as Phineas' shirt was only a larger size than 5 years ago.

  
As Phineas got up, he laughed, "Sorry, Bufe. I just got a little emotional there." As Buford wiped the dust off of his clothes, Isabella and Baljeet both gasped. There was only one person who wore an orange-and-white striped shirt and had a triangle-shaped head.

  
Isabella gasped once more as she saw the resemblance. She pointed at Phineas, and screamed in surprise, "Phineas?!" Phineas laughed once more and wiped off the rest of the happy tears that rolled down his cheeks. He nodded, and without having to say it, everybody knew that he had essentially said, _Yeah...it's been a while, hasn't it..._

  
Baljeet patted Phineas on the back, and whispered, "Yes, yes it has." Although Phineas loved being able to talk to his friends again, there was only one person that he was mainly interested in talking to at the moment. He turned to Isabella and smiled softly. Isabella shyly took a step towards him, then took a step back. Phineas' eyes briefly had a glint of confusion in them, before they heard footsteps in their direction.

  
Phineas turned to that direction and saw a tall, handsome brunette boy come near. He had a blue shirt on, with matching blue eyes and muscles that were visible through his shirt. His jeans were slightly sagging, and he kept walking with a cocky smile on his face. Phineas raised his eyebrow, and curiously asked, "Who are you?"

  
The teenager flipped his hair before speaking in a smooth, calming tone, "Jerome, but most people call me J. I'm surprised you haven't heard of me...you seem like one who's going to Danville High. I'm one of the more known people there, though I don't really love the attention." When Phineas made a facial expression that just screamed that he was going after this summer ended, Jerome spoke again.  
"Well, anyone who hangs out with Buford, Baljeet and Isa is a friend of mine. Pleased to meet you." Jerome put his hand out to shake, and Phineas, being the optimistic one that he is, took his hand and shook it firmly. Phineas then watched as Jerome walked over to Isabella and whispered to her while smiling. His eyes widened as he took Isabella's hand in his own and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  
Phineas turned away. He talked quickly, but still slow enough so that it would be understandable. "I-I'm sorry, Ferb said that I need to go and help him again. S-See you, guys." With that, he left and walked into the house, leaving the others in complete confusion.

  
Phineas sprinted into his and Ferb's room and buried his face in his pillow. He thought, incredulous, _Isabella has a boyfriend?!_ He became so engulfed in his tears that he slowly began to melt into the bed, accepting the warmth of the bed and the blanket.

  
Phineas began to break down...and the happy Phineas began to slowly break into another half of himself...

  
About an hour after Phineas had gone back into the house and Isabella and the rest of the gang had left, Ferb came walking home. Linda and Lawrence were remodeling their antique shop once more, moving the new objects back into the building where they originally were. Ferb looked at the home, and there was no sign of Phineas.

  
There was absolutely nothing that gave a sign to Ferb that Phineas was there. The lights were all off. The backyard was empty. When he knocked on the door, he had received no reply. Sighing, he assumed that Phineas was either sleeping, which was highly unlikely, or went to visit his old friends. Choosing the latter as it was more likely, Ferb put the bags he was holding on the ground and reached inside his left pocket. He explored his pockets with his fingers and pulled out a keychain. Jingling the keys until he found the one at his house, he unlocked the door and opened it slightly. Peeking into the home, he whispered, "Phineas?" The sound echoed throughout the house. One could hear a pin drop. Opening it more to see more of the home, he saw that there was no light whatsoever except the light coming in from the opened door. However, he did hear soft footsteps. The footsteps slowly became louder, but barely. A slumping man holding a cup that was steaming was walking past and walking upstairs.

  
Ferb walked into the house with the groceries in his hands. Kicking the door closed as both his hands were full, he put the grocery bags on the kitchen table before taking off his own shoes. Walking upstairs, he went to his room. He was surprised to see Phineas at the computer, sobbing. It seemed that he was looking at some pictures.

  
Not even bothering to wonder what pictures Phineas could've been looking at that had made him so sad, Ferb opened the door and walked to Phineas. He glanced at the computer and saw that the photos that Phineas was looking at were the photos of him and Isabella ten years ago.

  
Placing the pieces together, Ferb finally understood everything. Why Phineas was crying. Why he was sad during those five years. Even why he was looking at the old photos. Phineas had developed a crush on Isabella when they left. Because he didn't know what it felt like without her in his life.

  
Ferb was surprised to know that his little brother had a crush on her.

  
Phineas hugged his older stepbrother tightly and began to cry like he did five years ago. Like when he melted into Isabella's arms. When his tears began to stain her shirt. When he shook as he cried, and his voice stopped. He even said something that surprised Ferb like the past.

  
"Ferb, Isabella has a boyfriend."


	4. A simple 'no' would suffice.

As summer passed, and more inventions were built, everyone in Danville was happy to know that the legendary builder was back home. When Jerome had heard of his building accomplishments, he was absolutely flabbergasted. He denied it immediately and demanded to be given the truth. To reply to this, Ferb simply put it, "Well, we'll show you what we've got."

  
That whole day was filled with shock for Jerome. He had never seen such a fantastic invention in his life. However, he hadn't seen the day like it usually would've been. Phineas wasn't as enthusiastic about building as he usually was. There wasn't 'Phineas' spark, as most people called it. There was just the invention building.

  
And Ferb knew why. Ferb knew why it wasn't like the usual. It was because of one person. A certain person who was Isabella's boyfriend.

  
Even during the final day of summer, the day when Phineas and Ferb usually made their biggest invention yet, he wasn't his normal self. And Ferb didn't even expect that. It was clear that it affected Phineas that Isabella had a girlfriend a little too much, and nobody but him had even noticed it. All of Danville had just expected Phineas to just be this cheerful little teenager that built to make others happy.

  
And that all changed when high school had started.

  
Of course, high school was filled with a lot of homework. The sophomore year was a lot more added fun for the sophomores at Danville High just because of the lunch period. There were many eventful things that happened during the year as well. Both peak moments and pit moments.

  
There was one event in sophomore year that really affected Phineas like no other. When Ferb was returning from a school trip, he had gotten into a car accident. This scarred Phineas in many ways. The first being that he had never had to deal with this while he was conscious of everything that was happening.

  
There were more things that had dealt him damage as well. His actual father had died because of a car accident, and he had inspired the young teen to become an inventor even though Phineas was only two at the time when he died. (A/N: That's another fanfiction from a PnF writer who writes stories that are not Pnf, but I like the PnF fanfictions. I know I've had a Kicsterash reference before, but Kicsterash is my favorite fanfiction writer ever. There are another 2 references to her stories later on in the chapter, but you can probably find that yourself.)

  
However, there was another big event that happened in the next year. Of course, there were many things that had happened in junior year. One was the field trip to the museum that turned into a field trip to Mars. Phineas had lost his shirt there due to the aliens that had declared Candace their queen a while back. Another was when Phineas had literally lost his voice because of the vocal box that Ferb had made. And the third event was when Ferb had lost his temper at Phineas for messing around during lunch.

  
Even though they were all events that slowly took a piece of the good, optimistic Phineas that had started out, the biggest event was during the last year of high school; senior year.  
As Phineas brushed his teeth, preparing for school, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was going to happen. As he looked at the clock, he could the clock teasing him about something, but he couldn't place the feeling. He and Ferb walked down the stairs, holding their backpacks, and they were making jokes about the teachers they had. They were light and innocent jokes, though they were jokes nonetheless.

  
Phineas walked onto the bus with his older step-brother. He saw that the only empty spots were a pair of seats, the ones that he and Ferb had always sat in. It was like their unspoken unassigned seats. However, the gang had not found it strange that Isabella had sat away from them, always seated next to her boyfriend.

  
Phineas, however, had become more saddened by this fact. Usually, he had stared out the window and contemplated many things. Most days, it was the inventions that he and Ferb would make during lunch. On some days, though, he had thought about what it would be like if he had realized Isabella's love for him.

  
On these days, it took Ferb to knock him out of his thoughts, and usually a joke to help Phineas cheer up again. As they both walked into Danville High, they were shocked to hear the principal place an announcement. Principal Mitch Beauregard's voice came onto the speakers all over the school. It echoed through the halls, "Hello, Students of Danville High. This announcement is for the senior students in our school. We need all the seniors to head down to the auditorium immediately. That is all. Have a wonderful day, students, and remember, platypus for the win!"

  
Phineas and the others were slightly confused by this announcement. They went down to the auditorium, and all sat next to each other. The lights dimmed, earning many immature snickers from the teenager crowd.

  
Mitch walked onto the stage, a large light focusing onto the stage. Mitch rose his right arm to his mouth and spoke into the microphone, which echoed throughout the large auditorium. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is for all of you. As you all know, there is a dance for each grade level here at Danville High. As you know, there are the Newbies dance, the learning dance, the veteran's dance, for the respective years of Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years."

  
He took a quiet breath before continuing his speech, "So, we only give this information to the seniors, who, to this day, have never given the information out to anybody from the other years. So, I just want to know, do you know what the name of the dance is, and if so, raise your hand."

  
Not one hand went into the air. Mitch smirked, "Well, nice jobs, former seniors. You actually kept your promise. So, I will ask the same question to you as I did to them last year. Will you vow never to tell the younger years about this?" When all of the hands raised in unison, Mitch softly smiled, "Excellent. Here is the dance."

  
He pushed a button, and a poster with a heart on it that had the words in cursive in a red color, _Couple's dance!_  
Mitch spoke, "That is all."

  
As the crowd of people went outside, the ones who had lunch period earliest headed to the lunch room. This group included both Phineas and Isabella. Jerome wasn't there, as he was heading to his science class. The rest of the gang were each heading to their own class, but Phineas and Isabella were going to lunch.

  
It was evident that Isabella had changed. She was hanging out more often with the popular kids. She was spending more time with Jerome and the popular kids than Phineas, Ferb, and the rest of the gang. However, Phineas still thought there was hope for him.

  
Phineas had been secretly watching in a non-creepy way at Isabella and Jerome during summer. As he was building, he had seen the horrible things that Jerome had done to Isabella that none of the others had seen. He had seen Jerome yell at her, he had seen him scream at her, but worst of all, he had seen Jerome hit her.

  
With all of these things happening to her, he thought that there was still a chance for him and her to be together. As he walked to Isabella, she was still talking to the popular girls. It took a tap on her shoulder for him to get her attention. She asked, "What do you want, Phineas?"

  
Phineas looked to the side and rubbed his arm. He whispered, "W-Would you want to come to the Couple's Dance with me?" There was complete silence between the group before almost everyone in the group except Isabella had begun to laugh. Phineas felt ashamed to even ask that.

  
Isabella soon grinned evilly. She spoke in an all sweet tone, "Oh, look, Phineas. Finally realizing...eight years too late." Her expression turned to one of pure hate. "Phineas. Listen carefully."

  
Phineas gulped as he moved his face to look at the teenager. Isabella smirked, "I will not be going to the dance with you. If you remember, I already have a boyfriend." Her expression turned angrier. "Besides, you had your chance. You had your chance for five whole years, Phineas!" She began yelling at him, "I won't go to the dance to you, you idiot! All that time you had to finally make a move, and you didn't!"

  
She took a breath, "Phineas Flynn, I won't go to the dance, because you are an absolute humiliation! I will make sure that you will be ditched into the dust immediately!" She turned to the muscle in her group and said, "Take this fool away from me now." Phineas' heart snapped in two. And he broke.

  
The words slowly got to him. He didn't cry. He just broke. In his eyes, it began to fill with desperation. Sadness. Depression. Beyond what a normal human being should ever have to experience, let alone Phineas Flynn. As he was dragged away, the other side of him came out. The side that was never even seen. The Phineas Flynn that was a completely different Phineas. A betrayed, cutthroat Phineas.


	5. Mourning for a lost loved one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I remembered another thing: I wanted to apologize for the extremely poor quality of the chapters thus far. On Wattpad, this story has been there for maybe a year or two, and the quality of my writing was severely in need of help. Because of the low quality in my writing, as well as a comment about my writing from a close friend of mine, I decided to take a break and try to learn how to write in a more sophisticated way instead of how it was beforehand. So, in recent chapters, maybe the chapter after this one, I think that the quality of my writing will go up in ways like character personality, description, attention to detail, dialogue, word count (I'm up to around 3000 words per chapter now.)

Phineas Flynn had changed ever since Isabella's rejection. In a way that somebody would never expect. You wouldn't think that the usually completely optimistic, probably the happiest person in the world could change entirely. Unless you knew Phineas Flynn in Senior year. Phineas had become a different person. It was like a side of him that nobody had ever known before.

  
There were people who knew about when he briefly yelled at Candace on the Summer Solstice, and they teased him about it; he usually became embarrassed and tried to change the subject as soon as possible. However, this Phineas was actually nothing like that. While the Phineas that yelled at Candace had used his voice, the new Phineas rarely talked.

  
In fact, he rarely smiled either. His eyes showed hatred in them. He became from one of the best students in all of Danville to the absolute smartest person in the whole United States. He even surpassed his former friend Baljeet. Former friend, that is. After the rejection, Phineas lost contact with almost all of his friends. The only person who he still hung out with was Ferb, and he didn't hang out with him much. He only hung out with him sometimes because of how he was literally sleeping in the room that belonged to both of them.

  
Soon, that all changed. When they graduated, Phineas was the first to pick up and go to a college. Nobody knew which one he had gone to; he never spoke about college choices whatsoever. The first they heard of this was the first day of summer. Phineas woke up very early, got in his own car, and drove off, leaving a note on his bed saying he left for college.

  
Not knowing where Phineas could've gone to, the others just went off to their own colleges regretfully leaving the thought that they could be friends with Phineas again. Except for Isabella. She really didn't give half a damn that Phineas was away, as she was still more focused on being popular than having Phineas as a friend. She, too, ditched her former friends from the past to keep with her new popular group.  
However, there was something that Isabella had found that none of the others had found; Phineas. Without knowing it, she had chosen the same college that Phineas had chosen. Even though Isabella didn't know that Phineas had gone to her college, Phineas very much knew that Isabella chose the college that he was currently going to.

  
Their career choices were similar...in a very tiny, insignificant way. Phineas had chosen to engineer, with how he is still a legend of building inventions known throughout the whole wide world. Every engineering firm was waiting for the day he was going to graduate. Isabella had chosen a career in business, as she could influence people easily and had the ability to persuade.

  
Phineas had found a person who he could relate to in his college of California. To him, it felt slightly nice to know he could actually trust somebody again. It was a man his age named John. He had a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek, as well as black hair that was only long enough so that nobody could see all of his face. Part of his hair was covering his left eye. He wore a black hoodie with blue jeans every day.

  
Phineas and he were like a partnership. Phineas was someone else, and he had taken a title for being the most feared person on campus. He was the one who had the business and the technology. He usually took the jobs that he was hired for. Nobody was ever able to pin the things that happened at the campus to Phineas, nor the person who ordered it.

  
John was the one who had the skills in their 'business'. He taught Phineas about pressure points, erasing short-term memory, vanishing, breaking bones with ease, to put one into a coma, and many more skills Phineas would use in their business.

  
Phineas walked up to the vantage point that he had been assigned. Another job had come up. He brought out his sniper rifle. It wasn't lethal at all. It was just loaded with darts that did some certain things. It never killed anyone, just made them act differently, as if they were drunk, though they were completely conscious of their decisions.

  
He checked the school database, which he had hacked himself so he could get all the data he needed on the people who were targeted. He checked the name on the paper he had received. Cringing in disgust at how horrible the handwriting was, silently wishing that the teacher who taught him better, he looked at the name on the computer. A match.

  
He glanced at his custom-made sniper rifle. It was one of the best fits. Much lighter than the standard military-issue snipers, and much more durable as well, it was the perfect weapon for someone of Phineas' style. Lining his scope up with the person, and calculating for the wind as well as the distance of five miles, Phineas fired on his third exhale.

  
He saw the person slightly jump and smirked. He saw the target begin to walk around drunkenly, and he knew the job was done. He placed his rifle away, and remembered the four types of jobs that he had available for now; Sniping, thieving, erasing someone's memory, or stakeouts.

  
Using his molecular transporter, he teleported back to his locker and opened it. A $100 bill floated out of the locker, and with it, a note that said, "Here's the money. Alexim is walking around like an idiot. Good work." Taking out a laser, he pointed it at the paper and destroyed the evidence, and placed the $100 bill in his pocket.

  
Phineas had some business to attend to today. As he knew that Isabella was going to this school, he decided to do something before he was going to leave Isabella for good. He had been doing some digging around to see the course that Isabella had taken each day before finally picking one of the plans that he had available that also fit with his schedule.

  
Walking towards the spot at 4:30 exactly, he saw Isabella in the distance in her usual outfit. She was walking with her old Fireside Girls squad, who were also part of the popular ones at the college. Katie, Gretchen, Molly, Adison, and the other Fireside girls from her squad. They were laughing about something, and they were coming slightly closer to where Phineas was standing.

  
There was a strange discovery to Phineas. Jerome wasn't there anymore. Usually, he was hanging out with Isabella. He thought about why he could've been somewhere else. He shrugged and stayed invisible with his invisible ray. As Isabella was slightly sadder than before, that slightly added more to the infinitesimal amount of confusion that Phineas was expecting to have.

  
Phineas soon materialized. his right iris was red from his abilities. There was a scar across his right eye, due to an incident with something he had messed with to see what else he could do with his inventions. He walked towards Isabella's group with his hoodie on, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. When the group had come closer, they snickered, not knowing who it is.

  
Adison smirked, and mocked, "Who are you, loser? You don't deserve to talk to us." Phineas kept a straight face as he took off his hood, revealing his face. The whole group gasped. There were rumors about a person here with a scar on his right eye and a black hoodie with a triangular head. The rumors were anything but innocent.

  
One of the rumors was that he had a nuclear weapon in his backpack. This was a popular theory, though nobody doubted that he had a fully automatic pistol on him at all times. However, the biggest thing that people were curious about was what was in his notebook. Whenever he had free time, he was writing in his notebook. He had four full notebooks on the things he wrote, and he was preparing for a new type of mission that he could do.

  
Adison questioned, "Phineas?" Phineas stayed silent as he nodded. Isabella was confused. She never thought that Phineas would ever become this type of person. Phineas was much different than before. He had a certain glare within his eyes.

  
Katie was slightly shaking with fear. "I-I-I've h-heard w-what you've done. W-W-What d-do y-you want with us?"

  
Phineas spoke in a slightly stern tone, "I have nothing to do with you girls, just Isabella. Though, what happened to your boyfriend from before?"

  
Adison smirked, "You haven't heard? She broke up with him. I guess you're too stupid to know that." Phineas sighed. Bringing out his phone, he called John. He said three words. "Take her out." Almost as if he was running at the speed of light, John came and snatched Adison away. Phineas smirked, "Well then, that was unfortunate."

  
He put his phone away. "Now, Isabella...I have to do this before I leave the hope of being with you for good because you're not the person I loved." Phineas paused for a moment to look at all of the Ex-Fireside-Girls before continuing, "I don't think any of you are anything like the friends I once knew." He gave Isabella a very soft kiss. It felt amazing to Isabella. She felt sparks in her lips that she hadn't felt when she had been with her boyfriend, although the kiss didn't last long.

  
Once Phineas pulled away, he sighed as he quietly mumbled with a tiny tear in his eye, "If only I could've felt that spark when you still cared about me." With that, he took a step back and dematerialized once more, leaving Isabella and her group of friends in a mixture of shock and silence.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Howdy...this feels really strange and new to me. I know that a lot of authors of fanfiction already do this, and I know that it's probably just stealing their ideas, and I apologize for that. I just feel like I should have a way to communicate with the people who might be reading the stories that I write, no matter how few that amount may be.

  
Anyways, I did modify this chapter enough so that the story would then begin to follow the actual plot of the original story, unlike how it was with the gay stuff and stuff like that; I'm really sorry for taking that sort of turn when I should have just kept going with how the story had gone instead of giving in to the temptation of the stuff I wanted to see like the kinky little shit I am.

  
I really want to apologize for all the horrible things I had done to this story, but I know that that won't change anything. I promise that I will fix the wrongdoings that I had done to this story, and make it what it truly was supposed to be. I will do everything I can to make this story the best I can.

  
_My very best,_

  
_SpiritBloodDemon_

  
(God that's such an extra goodbye)


	6. Decomposition

Once Phineas had dematerialized from where Isabella and her friends stood, Isabella had a sort of dazed look in her eyes. It was as if she had found something in her that she hadn't felt in a while. It was the feeling that she hadn't felt ever since she had ditched Phineas. And it was one of the best feelings that she had ever experienced in a long time.

  
Not happiness or bliss or joy. No, Isabella had experienced purity for once in a few years. She hadn't felt like this ever since a little kid. She had always felt like friends had mattered most, popularity over reality, temporary over long-term. However, in this sort of mindset, she had forgotten what had truly mattered.

  
The ones who she truly cared about. Who she actually trusted and would give essentially anything and everything she had for. She felt pure, like a real, living human instead of that shell of a monster her personality had become over the years. She felt an inkling of actual purity instead of how being petty and selfish had made her throughout high school and college.

  
In fact, she never wanted to let go of this feeling ever again. She wanted to stay in this moment forever, although this was not what the universe had planned for her. Unfortunately, everyone else in her party had also felt something. Not purity, however. Phineas' words had struck them like a piercing arrow through the heart.

  
The park was silent other than the quiet chirping of crickets in the distance as the girls looked out into the distance. In each of their minds, a general thought was spread out amongst most of the Ex-Fireside-Girls, _Was what he said really true?_ Although people do change over the years, whether it be their preference or their appearance or more, the meaning of his few words still hit correctly like a dart hitting a bullseye.

  
Gretchen had gathered her mind enough to conjure up a few words, albeit rather quietly, "I think that...I need some time to think...S-See you guys..." With that, she walked off. The other girls in the group slowly nodded and took that as the cue to take their own time to contemplate what had just gone on before them, slowly disappearing from Isabella's vision into the city.

  
Isabella stayed behind, still under the flickering street light that Phineas had kissed her under. As the chirping of the crickets slowly came to a halt, Isabella breathed out a silent sigh. Her mind felt scrambled, failing to take in everything that had just happened. Although in a physical aspect, she could still feel the sensation of sparks on her lips. On the contrary, her mind was trying to take in all of what Phineas told her, despite how little it was.

  
Had she really changed that much? Was she a completely different person without her noticing it? It was something strange, really. Isabella always thought that she was the one who knew herself best, yet here comes Phineas claiming that she hadn't in the first place. This revelation confused her. It was as if her whole world had been turned upside down.

  
Taking her time to walk home, Isabella attempted to break her mind off of the thought of her changing drastically, but to no avail. No matter how much she tried to convince herself to think about something else, her mind always found a way back to that original thought.

  
_Have I really become a different person?_ thought Isabella. She never really considered that what she was doing would be different than the Isabella ten years ago. She wondered what the old Isabella would do, how she would do things differently than how she would before. Hoping that a brief visit to the store to grab some tea would do her some good, Isabella shook her head and began heading there.

  
While she walked to the store, her quiet footsteps being the only thing filling the air, Isabella sighed. She leaned against the wall and pulled out her phone. Bringing up her pictures while maintaining a mildly slower pace, the black-haired woman scrolled through a certain photo album to reminisce. Looking through the photos of her and the rest of the gang, even she could tell that there was something there in her eyes that wasn't there now.

  
It was as if she was more of a person when she was with the people that she cared about like they had made her whole. And she threw them away without thought to move on. Isabella sighed again, looking at the earl grey tea that she picked up. Dropping it in the cart with a bored expression on her face, another thought itched at her.

  
"Why?" It was a simple question, no doubt. This mundane question, however, was something that Isabella had to many of her issues. She was still confused about the events of her day. Blocking out the sound of the cashier speaking, she began to contemplate what she was in the past. Why she changed and what made her felt so empty. What she should do now, and where should she go for help.  
Later on, once Isabella had made it back home, she set her bags down on flopped onto her bed with a heavy sigh. Looking to the side, she picked up a picture frame from her nightstand that she hadn't glanced at for a while. It was a picture of her and the gang in one whole group photo, with a bright smile on their faces.

  
Isabella examined the picture thoroughly, gleaming through every detail that was on the thin paper. She could just feel the joy from the photograph, every single emotion that was rushing from it. And now, what did she feel. Temporary emotion from drinking at parties and playing silly, immature truth or dare? Satisfaction from superiority over other students in the hierarchy of popularity? Or even greed to be the most well-known person in the whole college? She couldn't even answer the question herself.

  
However, now she did know that she had changed. She had changed a whole ton. It was clear that she was nothing like the Isabella back then, she was but a former shell of the true personality belonging to the lovely lady inside. Bringing herself back to sitting on her bed, Isabella set her picture back on the nightstand and stood up.

  
Heading over to her desk, Isabella sat in her leather pink chair, leaning to the side in order to turn the light on. Picking up one of her pens from the container, she opened her diary and began writing. She wanted to pour so much into what the diary could contain, even though there wasn't nearly enough space to bring it out. After all, evidence was strewn across the miniature notebook that it hadn't been put to use in years. She even had to wipe away dust from the cover to be able to read the title.

  
After years of being pent up, Isabella had to use many, many pages in order to put in all of her emotion, spending at least a whole hour releasing the bottled emotions like a waterfall. It was unnatural and surely unhealthy to keep those feelings contained without once letting it go. Her mind wandered to another strange place as her body just kept expressing the rest of her emotions.

  
_Why did I even change in the first place?_   She had wondered. Instead of having pure joy of just hanging out with her friends eye-to-eye and engaging in actually interesting activities, now she just kept on her phone at parties that were mainly for kissing each other in spin the bottle. She realized that she just threw away her friends. Yes, she knew this for years. She held pride in this fact ever since she got to college. Though, it seemed as if this was changing now.

  
Now, she regretted that decision. She regretted just ditching all of her friends in a snap. She hadn't even tried to maintain contact with the people that she talked to for years. But now, she wanted to see them more than ever. Isabella truly wanted to mend that bond, the bridge of friendship that she so quickly burnt without even thinking about it.

  
Burning through the ink of a total of seven pens, Isabella looked over the 27 pages that she had written in. Taking a deep sigh, as well as a bottle of water from her kitchen, Isabella laid down on her bed. To her, it felt nice to let out her emotions. It felt like there was a monumental weight being lifted off of her shoulders, and she felt light gain. She felt more of that purity flow through her, the shell of her former self slightly breaking.

  
However, although she knew that she wanted to break that former shell somewhere deep down, it was clear that the current Isabella wasn't having any of this pure happy stuff. However, this shell was still there. It was there for a long time, and it wouldn't be going away. Although the weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, she still felt a ton of impulses. Grabbing her phone to see another text, the shell of Isabella found an invite to a party, already beginning to get ready.  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Whoo, that was a good amount. Yeah, I know that there isn't a lot in my chapters, but I just want this story to be a bit shorter so I can make some better stories in the future. For this chapter, I wanted to focus specifically on Isabella.

  
I think I'm gonna be making an update on where in the original Pseudo-Rejection I'm at in the story now. So for this chapter, we're right past Phineas kissing Isabella after she broke up with her boyfriend and a tad before her confession to him.

  
Yep, I think that I'm starting to do justice to this story. Definitely improving from what I had done beforehand. Again, I know that not many people are gonna read this, but for those who do, I'd love to hear your feedback and helpful critiques on my writing!

  
_All my best,_

  
_SpiritBloodDemon_


	7. A taste of her own medicine

Ringing flooded the atmosphere, shocking Isabella from her sleep. Drool pooled onto the pillow next to her, while she yawned the rest of her sleep away. As she slowly opened her eyes, she just knew that there were bags under them with how pained her body felt at the moment. Slowly stretching, she could've sworn that half of her joints cracked a total of at least five hundred times. Scratching her head, she could feel every single throb. With how she could only vaguely remember the events of the party last night, she was very surprised that she found a way to get home at all.

  
Eventually finding the will to actually open her eyes, Isabella was quite displeased for her eyes to be first met with the blinding light of the sun in her day. As it shone on her face as well as the rest of her room, the college lady reached around blindly to turn on the lamp on her nightstand. Groaning while she rose, the bed creaking under her, Isabella trudged to the bathroom in order to begin getting ready.

  
 _Whatever happened yesterday to make me feel like actual garbage?_ Isabella questioned herself. _Why do I even go to these parties? I always regret it in the end._ A few minutes later, when she looked more presentable, albeit still with light bags under her eyes, Isabella prepared for the rest of her school day. Although her grades were still doing well, it was still a priority to Isabella, even though she secretly knew deep down that her popularity in college currently took the top spot for her focus. Quickly putting on her jet black heels in order to match her hair, she made out of her house to begin her daily walk to the university.

  
Around a half hour later, Isabella came face to face with the same college doors that she did every day. Sighing, she felt a strange aura surrounding the place, and a tiny thought of fear slowly creeping into her mind. Although she knew that this was probably an irrational thought, she could not help but feel that something strange would occur soon. It was a feeling of dread that came out of nowhere, as she felt a chill run down her spine like lightning. Shaking off the sudden feeling that struck her, Isabella quickly continued with the rest of her day, ignoring the moment that had just occurred.

  
 _Weird...why can't my day just be normal? Just cause I partied doesn't mean the universe has to hate me or something like that..._ Isabella contemplated. _This whole day has been nothing but ugh._ While her day wasn't anything unusual, it definitely varied from her usual routine. Even the frequent parties never resulted in her waking up so horrid. Ever since she woke up, her whole routine had been screwed with by reality.

  
As Isabella worked through her day, she couldn't help but notice the lack of her friends walking through the school. In fact, it seemed as if every single one of them had suddenly vanished without any sort of warning. It felt strange to not have the constant presence of her childhood group of friends with her at this very moment. To Isabella, it felt, in a way...isolating.

  
Ever since college begun, her group of friends had been there with her walking throughout the day at essentially all times, being with each other talking about the recent gossip around the place, from simple news like parties to humiliations like Alexim (Though they hadn't come to think that Phineas might have been the one behind this event.) They always spoke to each other, whether it be through phones or face-to-face.

  
Now, to have them away from Isabella with no trace, it felt strange. Isabella felt alienated like this was a whole new school without her friends. Somehow, them not being there with her was something that she didn't like, and she felt like she needed them with her there to keep going.

  
 _Where could they have gone? It's not like they would go to a party without me or somethin',_ Isabella mused. _We've always been a family with each other, through thick and thin or however they say it._ Throughout the class, where she would normally find Gretchen, Adyson, Katie, and Holly, she soon found that none of them were there, while every single other student had attended the class that day. This day had just progressed further and further into the exact opposite of her usual day.

  
At the end of the school day, she still couldn't find any trace of the Fireside Girls. Even asking around from the other popular kids, results were slim to none. Hell, the only actual information that she got was from a douche who only slurred, "Bruh, I only saw Katie go to drop you off at yur own crib, got it?" Even being in the presence of the man had been displeasing from his horrid breath to his saggy pants. After a whole hour of searching for any scrap of her friends, Isabella gave up, hoping that they would just be back the next day.

  
Isabella sighed, knowing that she had had a rough day. She suspected that even a fine bottle of booze wouldn't relax her from how today had shaken her brain. What she needed was a mighty fine massage. Although she knew she hadn't got enough money to go for a nice massage, even though her job paid well, the constant partying kept striking her wallet and leaving her enough for the necessities and a tiny bit extra.

  
_The week after_

 

Gretchen woke up with a quiet groan. After what she and her friends had experienced with Phineas the other day, it had left a mark on them. Even though they hadn't had much contact with the lone wolf, and even though he hadn't even said much, his few words were enough to strike their mind. Like Isabella, Gretchen and the other fireside girls were quite perplexed about what he had told them. It was more than enough to make them question everything they had even done at college.

  
Slowly rising from her bed, Gretchen certainly felt better than Isabella recovering from her party, though she still wasn't feeling 100%. A few minutes after she finished getting ready, Gretchen picked up her phone and opened up PicTalk. It was an app similar to Snapchat, with a different aesthetic and a different name. Opening up the group chat with Isabella and the rest of the fireside girls, she added all of the members other than Isabella into a new group chat.

  
The bespectacled lady quickly typed into her phone at a blazing speed, 'Hey, guys. I know we've all been affected by what Phin had said, and I wanted to talk to you guys about it in person. Gazebo in the park at 9?' Putting her phone down, Gretchen began enjoying a simple bowl of cereal. In a few moments, she was pleasantly surprised to see the rest of the girls agree to her plan. Looking at the time, which had been 6:47 at the moment, Gretchen called the park to let them know she would be renting out their gazebo from 9 to 11.

  
A few hours later, when the clock hit 8:30, Gretchen grabbed her belongings and left for the park in her usual attire: A striped blue and white knitted sweater from her cousin, denim blue skinny jeans, and white flats. Once she arrived at the gazebo, she sat down and began to enjoy her tea and book that she had brought with her peacefully as she waited for the other girls to come.

  
Although the rest of the fireside girls were rather impulsive and irresponsible, Gretchen was essentially the mother of the group, acting as a role model as well as a shoulder to lean on. She showed the other girls how to do things like managing their wages, though they rarely listened, helped them learn from their homework, and even stop them from doing stupid things. It was clear that she was a large influence on the rest of the girls, and even her other colleagues as well.

  
Once the other ladies arrived as a group, each of them carrying a different cup of coffee from Starbucks, Gretchen waved to them and invited them to sit down with her. The gazebo was a calming environment, painted white on the exterior, blue on the interior, with a marvelously beautiful view of the park around them. To Gretchen, it was the perfect place to discuss things, like with her book club. As she set down her book and tea, Gretchen let out a soft cough to catch the attention of the girls who were with her and waited for all eyes to be on her.

  
She had a more serious demeanor, one that would seem like a parent talking to their child as she spoke, "Look, I'm pretty sure it's clear why I wanted all of us to be here?" As she received a nod from the other girls, she continued. "I know that we all needed to take some time off because of Phineas, and think about what we were going to do."

  
As she waited a few moments to continue before announcing her own opinion on the matter, it was clear that this was also one of the very few things that her friends took seriously as she released what was on her chest, "I think that I'm going to take some time off and leave the group." This was something that the rest of the girls could understand. In fact, some of them were also contemplating doing this. As a new atmosphere filled the gazebo with Gretchen's new revelation, they eventually nodded in agreement, one by one.

  
Katie stood up and put her hand to her heart before whispering in a way that only her friends would be able to hear her, "Yeah, I think I need a break from all the chaos. I need to know who I really am." As murmurs from the other girls began, it was clear that they had agreed with her point of continuing.

  
However, Gretchen spoke to all of them at once, "Well, what are we going to do about Isabella? Are we just going to ditch her?"

Katie thought about it for a moment with a hand on her chin before continuing, "I think we have to, but how are we going to break it to her?"

  
"Maybe we should tell her separately?" Holly suggested, even though they knew that this was very unlikely. As the rest of the ladies contemplated this, it took a long time of discussing, throwing up ideas before they came to a conclusion. They all agreed on telling her as a group to avoid the feeling of individual guilt, as well as only one wave of strong heartbreak instead of multiple waves of eventually breaking her down in the end.

  
The rest of the time that they spent that day was spent hanging out by themselves, enjoying the time they spent together, for they knew that this would be one of the last times that they would really spend this time together for a long time. Although they would see each other around campus, they wouldn't spend much time around each other afterward, all of them coming to accept that they were going to go their own separate ways after they told Isabella.

  
Each of them accepted that they would still hang out, though not as often as before. It was clear that they were done with the life of partying and new to the concept of taking their lives seriously, but to them, it was for the best. Although Phineas was tearing them apart, it was sort of a good thing for them to take their lives in a whole new perspective.

  
That was the last day that the Fireside girls spent time altogether.

  
_Two days later_

  
Gretchen and the rest of the ladies decided to break the news to Isabella on campus. As they arranged for a meeting around the end of the day, they waited for Isabella to arrive. Once she did with a large smile on her face, it only hurts them more knowing that the one who made all of these memories together possible was the same person who they were going to hurt horribly. The same girl who helped all of them become friends was about to be punished by those friends for all of the things they changed.

  
Isabella walked up to the group with a smile as she gleefully spoke, "Hey guys, whatcha doin'? Haven't seen you guys in like forever!" She noticed their somber expressions as she continued with slight concern in her eyes and voice. "Is something wrong? What's with the long faces?"

  
Gretchen stepped closer to Isabella, while the rest of the fireside girls stayed back while she had pity in her voice, "Look, Isabella. We were thinking about what Phineas had told us a week back, and I talked to the others about it." She scratched the back of her neck nervously before she finished, "And we decided that we're gonna go our separate ways from now on. We just need time to find who we really are now and I'm so sorry that we had to do this. I hope you can forgive us."

  
Isabella's world came crashing down. Everything in her mind was setting off alerts. All of her friends, leaving her? It seemed like a horrible nightmare. She pinched herself, but to no avail. No matter how much she wanted to avoid it, she couldn't escape the fact that this was reality. Every single person that hung out with her on a daily basis leaving her so quickly. Her mind ran with thoughts of negativity, worry, fear, and concern taking the top spot.

  
Here, Isabella froze yet again. What would she do now that everyone that she held dear left her? Would she still be popular? Would people still care about her? These were only a few of the many questions that ran throughout Isabella's frantic mind. Although she held a rather stagnant position, her mind was the exact opposite, running all around and everywhere at the same time. Nothing had hit Isabella like this before.

  
She felt like Phineas all those years ago without even knowing it. She felt crushed, stepped on and looked down upon. She felt like she was thrown into that deep, dark pit of despair when a human is pushed into the most desperate, painful situation. The pit of despair where everyone breaks you down, hurts you, lies to you, and so much more. Where the worst of humanity lies. She felt the way that Phineas had felt when he had been rejected, and she understood every single ounce of pain that he had felt, for she had been going through it.

  
"Why? Why would you do this? We could have stuck together!" Isabella whispered at the beginning, gradually turning into desperate yelling at the end. It was painful to be betrayed by the people that you loved. Yet, that was exactly what Isabella felt. She felt what no human deserved to feel, the true despair in her heart.

  
Her words stung the fireside girls, yet they wouldn't respond. All they could do is stare at her with pity in their eyes silently. They never wanted to hurt Isabella, though it was the choice they had to make. Sacrifice one for the good of all. As Isabella stared at them hopelessly, they couldn't form anything to say and instead opted to look to the side, avoiding the pain Isabella had in her eyes. The pain that they had caused would have hurt even them, with just the look in Isabella's eyes. She had never felt such a hurt in her life.

  
Her eyes were red from all the crying, nose stuffy and mind numb. Isabella could feel her body become weak and knees wobbly. Every aspect of her was breaking down from this betrayal. Gasping for air, sobbing, Isabella grasped Gretchen's shoulders and hugged her tightly. Although this wasn't what she had planned for, she couldn't help but hold her close for the last time, as if she owed Isabella this for what she had done to her.

  
Gretchen whispered to Isabella, "I'm sorry, Isa. We need to be alone for now, and I speak for all of us when I say that we're truly sorry for having to leave you." Even though she knew what her reply would be, Gretchen stared intently at Isabella waiting for her response.

  
As expected, it was indeed what she thought, "B-But you d-don't have to leave me!" Isabella begged, sobs between her shaky words. As much as Gretchen didn't want to hurt her best friend, she had to. She needed to understand that they needed to progress further in life and that she was stopping that from happening. Gretchen never wanted this, but she knew that it had to be done.

  
And it was done. Isabella was broken in front of the girls, and each of them knew that they had done something to her. As time passed, the fireside girls slowly made their way back to their home, a slight pang of guilt running through their hearts. And two hours after they had begun, Gretchen tapped the still-crying Isabella's head, slightly nudging her.

  
"Isabella, I'm really sorry about all of this. I have to go," Gretchen whispered. Slowly releasing Isabella's grip from her now tear-stained shirt, Gretchen gave a weak smile to Isabella before making her own way home, leaving Isabella alone, still crying and frozen in place.

  
Isabella whimpered more, her heart aching harder as she ran to the nearest store. Desperate to forget, she grabbed the strongest booze that she could find. After a few questioning looks from the cashier as well as a concerned question which she blew off quicker than a hurricane blowing off the roof of a house, Isabella ran back home to drink all her sorrows away.  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Whoo, this is the very first chapter that I've ever written that hits the 3000 word mark. Every chapter that I've written before has been about 1500-1600 words, and I think that I'm making progress with better-sized progress. I actually like writing 3000 word chapters more than 1500 word chapters. In fact, I think that I'm gonna write chapters with 3000 words and maybe, just maybe move up later on if I feel like it.

  
Yeah, this story was meant to be dramatic. I'm sorry if there are any mistakes that I made with this, and if anyone notices, I'd be glad to fix any grammatical mistakes, punctuational mistakes, or other mistakes! I think I'm making the extended version of this story better, and I'm happy that I'm doing better at writing (well at least in my opinion). And yeah, I'm honestly really proud of this story now that I'm fixing it up pretty quickly.

  
Okay, now in the timeline of the story, we're a tad after Phineas kissing Isabella and a tad before Isabella trying to win Phineas' love back. So now, I'm thinking that the next chapter's gonna be a chapter where it takes place between now and Isabella trying to win Phineas back so that's gonna be fun.

  
Again, even if nobody reads this, I'd love to hear anyone's feedback on my story and how it's going, and I'll gladly listen! I love writing this sort of stuff, and I already have a plan for what to write after finishing this story.

  
My very best,

  
SpiritBloodDemon


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